Social Studies: Understanding Social Media for Business

SOCIAL STUDIES How photographers can leverage social media to maintain and grow their business 1 Friday, May 28, 2010

Social Media: Overview From Wikipedia: “Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).” Friday, May 28, 2010

Social Media: Overview Questions Everybody Asks: “Should I be using social media for my business?” “Should I be on Facebook, or Twitter, or both?” “How do I really make these things productive?” “Hardly anyone reads my blog? Should I bother?” “Is there a right and wrong way to do this?” “Is this worth my time?” Friday, May 28, 2010

Measurement With any marketing initiative, you need to give yourself a goal and a metric to help objectively assess if you performed well. ‣ Know your goal What are you ultimately trying to achieve? • Book more assignments from existing clients • Brand yourself as the most respected wedding photographer in your region. • Sell more stock photography from your archive. • Develop a following of Yellowstone Park enthusiasts who buy your ﬁne art prints • Obtain critique or professional guidance from a wider network of your peers. Friday, May 28, 2010

Your Marketing Efforts There are 2 primary types of marketing: Outbound Inbound “You ﬁnd them” “They ﬁnd you” E-mail Campaigns Social Media Promo Card Mailings Search Engines Cold Calling Blogs Paid Advertising Word of Mouth Interruption Permission Friday, May 28, 2010

Your Marketing Efforts There are 2 primary types of marketing: Outbound + Inbound = Your marketing plan. Friday, May 28, 2010

Your Marketing Efforts There is no perfect recipe for mixing inbound and outbound tactics. Your marketing plan. Friday, May 28, 2010

It’s a bunch of tubes! Social Media for business is NOT for mindless interaction It’s a conduit to your website to your points of conversion Friday, May 28, 2010

Conversion is key In other words Having lots of “friends” is useless if you cannot get them to do what you want them to do Friday, May 28, 2010

Why use social media? There are several very obvious approaches and beneﬁts to using social media for marketing and business growth. ‣ Brand building ‣ Managing relationships ‣ Direct sales generation ‣ Search engine rankings ‣ Inspiration & feedback Friday, May 28, 2010

Twitter Twitter is a “micro-blogging” platform. It lets you express yourself in short, 140-character “tweets.” ‣ Twitter accounts in 2009: 18 million ‣ Twitter accounts in 2010: 26 million (projected) ‣ The average Twitter account has 300 followers. ‣ The average account follows 173 accounts. ‣ The average account has posted 420 updates. ‣ 82% of users have less than 100 followers, 81% are following less than 100 people. Friday, May 28, 2010

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Twitter & photogs We’ve seen dozens of ways that photographers are using Twitter productively, including: ‣ Driving new, quality trafﬁc to your website or blog ‣ Driving signups for your newsletter ‣ Building relationships with potential clients ‣ Announcing news, achievements, special promotions, and events. ‣ Generating awareness and interest in your services ‣ Discussing professional issues with your peers ‣ Connecting with local vendors for business referrals and partnerships ‣ Obtaining feedback on images ‣ Performing trend research Friday, May 28, 2010

Twitter & photogs Some tips for growing your followers on Twitter: ‣ Provide useful information. ‣ Tweet regularly ‣ Retweet regularly ‣ Suggest that people follow you. ‣ Start and contribute to conversations. ‣ Attribute everything. ‣ Engage with the big guys. ‣ Watch your timing and consistency. ‣ Use strategic keywords ‣ Practice reciprocity. Friday, May 28, 2010

Twitter & PhotoShelter You can link Twitter and your PhotoShelter website in two ways: ‣ Let your website visitors post your work on Twitter. Friday, May 28, 2010

Twitter & PhotoShelter You can link Twitter and your PhotoShelter website in two ways: ‣ Post image galleries to Twitter. Friday, May 28, 2010

Twitter Bottom Line It’s really hard to succeed on Twitter unless ‣ You can build a following of > 1000 people ‣ You have regular tweets with good informational value ‣ You’re producing tweetable content ‣ You have a conversion goal Friday, May 28, 2010

Facebook Today, 400 million people are currently registered with Facebook to connect with friends and professional contacts. ‣ More than 3.5 billion pieces of content shared weekly ‣ More than 2.5 billion photos uploaded to the site each month. The largest photo sharing site in the world ‣ Average user has 130 friends on the site ‣ Average user spends 55 minutes per day on Facebook ‣ Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month Friday, May 28, 2010

Facebook One important point to consider: Facebook has become the communication method of choice for millions of people. Friday, May 28, 2010

Facebook & photogs Why you might use it for a photography business: ‣ Build a community around your business. ‣ Promote your content. ‣ Deepen relationships. ‣ Referral business ‣ Get yourself found online. Friday, May 28, 2010

Facebook & photogs Tips to maximize a business fan page: ‣ Engage with your fans. Post updates frequently. ‣ Feed your blog directly into your Page via RSS. ‣ Customize your Page with rich HTML tabs. ‣ Use the page avatar to showcase your photography. Friday, May 28, 2010

Facebook & photogs Tips to maximize a business fan page: ‣ Optimize your page for SEO ‣ Work hard to grow your fans. ‣ Consider creating a resource page to attract new fans. ‣ Use Facebook’s stats and Google Analytics to optimize your Page. ‣ Use “Updates” sparingly. Friday, May 28, 2010

Fan page stats Friday, May 28, 2010

Beyond Facebook Friday, May 28, 2010

Don’t Fan Me Don’t send me unsolicited fan page invitations because there is no apparent value. Friday, May 28, 2010

Blogging There are several primary reasons to explore blogging: ‣ To promote your photography ‣ SEO - Helping search engines ﬁnd you. ‣ Demonstrate you are a thought leader. ‣ Demonstrate how you work. ‣ Create and maintain a dialogue with your audience. Friday, May 28, 2010

Blogging Success Tips ‣ Have a plan. ‣ Know your theme. ‣ Let people access your content on their terms. ‣ Make your personality clear. ‣ Make it a two-way, engaging experience. ‣ Optimize every post for SEO. Friday, May 28, 2010

Blogging Using your blog to build links, some tips: ‣ Think “linkbait” • Top 10 lists – (e.g.. top 10 inspiring nature photographers, 10 most powerful brands in photography, 10 ways to piss off a photo editor.) • Dispute the popular opinion about anything – use facts or data for support. • Intelligent tips, based on your experiences or gathered from an industry icon. • Divulge the secrets of your success, or ask your followers to do the same, and link to it. • Post reviews of popular products and ask for debate. • Publish a resource list aggregating the best online articles on a given subject. Friday, May 28, 2010

Blogging & PhotoShelter Using your blog to build links, some tips: ‣ Embeddable slideshows & single images ‣ PhotoShelter seamless customization to integrate your blog ‣ Graph Paper Press Wordpress Customization & Plugins Friday, May 28, 2010

The Bottom Line Social Media is real People are succeeding in promoting their biz It’s worth testing, but you need measurements Deﬁne goals, don’t waste time Be constructive, less controversial Friday, May 28, 2010

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Social Studies: Understanding Social Media for Business

by PhotoShelter, Inc. on May 28, 2010

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Social Studies: Understanding Social Media for Business — Presentation Transcript